During the post-fight press conference of UFC on Fuel TV 2, Dana White told the media that the UFC was looking into possibly creating “regional circuits and champions.”
"Lorenzo and I were literally talking about this before the show started tonight, and we’re coming up with some ideas on how to – believe it or not – do more events so that we can feed these markets that are dying for it. The U.K. keeps terrorizing us. Ireland is part of it, but (we’re) going back to Ireland, too. And Scotland. A guy here tonight was asking about Norway. Germany we haven’t been back to.
"Every time we got to Australia, it’s insane. There are a lot of markets that are starved. India – we’re going to go to India. The list goes on and on and on. China we were talking about tonight, too. But we’re working on figuring out how to feed all these markets so they don’t have to wait so long…We talked about [regional champions]. We talked about rankings – just like boxing, guys ranked in other countries. So you end up being ranked. I don’t know. You have UFC champions, and then you have guys that are ranked in different countries. It absolutely makes sense. In the big picture, long-term, it absolutely makes perfect sense.”
Perfect sense, maybe, but I believe this is a ways away from actually happening, if it ever does. I’m not quite sure how I feel about more champions. So, if you have 5 regional Welterweight Champions, which one of them gets the shot at the true UFC Champion? I don’t know about more champions. I like the regional shows idea, but I want to be able to watch those too. Seems like a lot to work out, but it sounds interesting.
With Alistair Overeem’s status uncertain for the UFC 146 main event, many fans and media members have started rallying for Mark Hunt to replace him. However, UFC President Dana White shot that down quickly. “They can keep rallying. That ain’t going to happen. Listen, Mark Hunt is going to have to fight one of the top guys. You don’t just jump right into the title shot…I’ve got to say, anything can happen in a fight, but in all reality, it’s not fair to Mark Hunt either to put the guy right in there with a Junior dos Santos for a title shot. The guy [ideally] works his way up, he beats Struve, fights somebody in the top-five. I guarantee you this: If he beats Struve, his next fight will be [against] somebody that’s top-five that can get him closer to that title shot.”
I never thought Hunt had a shot to replace Overeem. Mir is the only one that makes sense. Like White said, if he beats Struve, and then defeats his next top 5 guy, then he could arguably get a shot. Not now.
Rashad Evans told MMAJunkie.com that his former trainer Greg Jackson isn’t about his team, he’s about himself, and that’s why he brought Jones in. “Like I told Greg at the time, I told Greg I don’t think it would be a good idea [to bring Jon Jones in], but Greg did what Greg wanted to do for Greg. That’s why Greg brought him on because Greg wanted to do what he wanted to do for Greg. That’s the thing about him. Greg talks about ‘for the team, for the team.’ The team consists of ‘I’ which is Greg Jackson. That’s what the team consists of, it’s about Greg Jackson getting the ‘Coach of the Year’ awards. That’s what it consists of.”
Yeah, that’s pretty much how I pegged Greg Jackson myself. And for the record I don’t have a problem with that. He has to run a business, and bringing in fresh new talent assures that will continue. What I do have a problem with is the fake-ness of his statements, as Evans just pointed out.
When asked about Alistair Overeem’s status for UFC 146, Dana White told a group of reporters that he’s not commenting on it. “I will snap and freak out and I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to talk about it. I’m too upset about it. Seriously, I can’t talk about it. Everybody gets due process. Alistair Overeem will have his due process with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. We’ll see what happens and we’ll go from there. When it all goes down, somebody else will speak about this. Not me.”
White still seems very pissed, and should be. He has a real problem on his hands. Even if Overeem is “cleared” and allowed to fight, what if he defeats JDS? Then the UFC has a champion that sort of/did cheat, and that’s not good. Guess we’ll find out in a week.
Nick Diaz’s lawyer, Ross Goodman, has issued another letter toward the Nevada State Athletic Commission, giving them an ultimatum on hearing Diaz’s case. “We presume that the NSAC will comply with its statutory obligation to have this matter heard on April 24th, 2012. If not, my client takes the position that the NSAC has by virtue of its delay irrevocably elected to discontinue or abandon its complaint against Mr. Diaz. The NSAC has no authority to hear or determine the complaint at a later date, and any such purported hearing or determination of the complaint would be ultra vires the NSAC’s statutory powers.”
This lawyer has some cajones, that’s for sure. He’s going at the NSAC with full force, basically making them hear Diaz’s case next week or risk losing their complaint against him. Next Tuesday is going to be a big day in the MMA world.